Friday May 31st at 8pm
2012 USA Cert (UK): 15 Runtime: 95 mins Directors: Ben Lewin Cast: Adam Arkin, Annika Marks, Helen Hunt, John Hawkes, Moon Bloodgood, William H Macy, William H. Macy
The Sessions tells the remarkable true story of Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes), a poet and journalist living in Berkeley, California, who decides at the age of 38 that he wants to experience sex for the first time in his life. However, he’s been confined to an iron lung except for four hours a day when he can be wheeled around, stretched out on a gurney, since an attack of polio at the age of six.
The film is based on an article by Mark called “On Seeing a Sex Surrogate” and on interviews with Cheryl Cohen-Greene (Helen Hunt) and with Susan Fernbach, the hospital volunteer who became his companion, lover and literary collaborator for the rest of his life. He died in 1999.
This is a funny, moving, beautifully acted movie. If you came to see and were warmed by ” The Diving Bell and The Butterfly” and by “Untouchable”, you’ll love this.
Ben Lewin’s The Sessions is an emotionally charged film with a smart sense of humor that’ll have you tearing up from equal doses of laughter and drama.
While the sex sessions are frank, candid and populated by a constantly-naked Helen Hunt, it’s far more warm and feelgood than you might be expecting.
Three days after viewing, the film’s questioning generosity and sense of perspective will still be knocking around your head.
The Sessions is a mature film about sex with wonderful and fearless performances from Helen Hunt and John Hawkes. This isn’t a fun movie as it deals with serious issues, but it’s a well-made film about how universal sex is even to people with disabilities.
Quotes from RottenTomatoes.com